Whincup ‘Rains’ Supreme At Clipsal 500

Unpredictable weather conditions were unable to stop Jamie Whincup taking an emphatic victory in the second race of the Clipsal 500. This was his fifth win in the past eight races at the Adelaide event, and his sixth Clipsal 500 race victory overall.

“This is a huge win for us,” said Whincup.

“Yesterday things didn't quite go our way but today we fought deep. Today's conditions don't get any tougher than that,” he remarked.

The race started in heavy rain making for exciting racing as the lead changed four times in the first half of the 77-lap event. Despite a poor start, dropping a place to a charging Lee Holdsworth, Whincup was soon back on the pace and duelling with pole-sitter Ford Performance Racing's Will Davison. In just three laps the lead swapped no fewer than seven times.

As the pair battled for the lead, the chasing pack began to catch up forming a seven car fight for the lead between Davison, Whincup, James Courtney, Rick Kelly, Holdsworth, Craig Lowndes and Shane van Gisbergen. Incredibly, van Gisbergen had climbed from 23rd to eighth in just nine laps.

As the track dried, tyre wear began to play a part. Whincup dropped off the pace, falling behind Toll Holden Racing Team’s James Courtney, who also got ahead of Davison to take the lead on lap 23. Dave Reynolds and Garth Tander regained their places from van Gisbergen and Davison slipped further back to third behind Rick Kelly. A downpour at turns seven and eight then gave the track some contrast, sending Craig Lowndes, Reynolds and Courtney all wide giving Rick Kelly the lead on lap 25.

Lap 26 marked the first round of pit-stops, and the changeable weather led to several last-second calls to remain on wet tyres. A brave Lee Holdsworth of Garry Rogers Motorsport was the only contender to opt for slicks. Holdsworth soon paid the price when he crashed into the wall at Turn 8 on his out-lap as the rain began to fall again. This triggered the safety-car and sparked panic in the pit-lane with more than half the field coming in for new wet tyres.

Just a few laps later, Team BOC's Jason Bright spun at turn two hitting the tyre wall hard, causing extensive damage to the front of his car. Bright limped back to the pits but the safety car was required while the debris was cleared. It was too late though for Team Vodafone's Craig Lowndes who picked up a puncture after running over the wreckage. Pitting again for new tyres dropped him from fifth to 22nd and took him out of sequence on pit strategy leaving Kelly, Jonathon Webb, Courtney, Whincup, Mark Winterbottom and Davison at the head of the queue.

Rick Kelly remained the leader at the restart, but a drying track allowed a charging Whincup to pass Courtney for third and then Webb for second a few laps later. By lap 45, Whincup had really taken the initiative, grabbing the lead from Kelly where he was to remain for the rest of the race.

The third safety car intervention came on Lap 49 when Gulf Western Oil's Warren Luff crashed at Turn 8. This led to a busy pit-lane area as many of the cars dived into the pits for their second and final pit-stops. With conditions improving on the circuit, most teams switched to slick tyres. The day was to go from bad to worse for Lowndes though as his Commodore was released into the path of Greg Murphy in the pit lane, spinning Lowndes at the exit. He was able to resume, but lost a number of places before being served with a drive-through penalty for the unsafe release.

At the restart Whincup led the field from Kelly and Webb, before Webb lost places to Courtney and Davison.

Having raced hard to close in on second, smoke then appeared from James Courtney's Toll Holden Racing Team Commodore. Seeing his chance to take the spot, Mark Winterbottom in the Orrcon Steel FPR car rubbed and bumped with Courtney for third. Winterbottom got by on lap 60, with Paul Dumbrell following him through. Dumbrell ran wide though at Turn 4 on lap 64 and fell back to fifth.

Several skirmishes broke out amongst the front-runners in the closing laps. Winterbottom sparred with Rick Kelly right up to the end of the race. Whilst Dumbrell clashed with race one winner Garth Tander for fifth place with both drivers lucky to escape punishment.

For the second day in a row, the race ran to time rather than distance – with 77 of the 78 laps completed. And it was to be Whincup that took the top-spot having pulled out a 1.3 second lead over Rick Kelly. Mark Winterbottom followed in third from Courtney, Tander and Dumbrell.

Whincup now has two firsts, a second and a third from the first four races of 2011.

The next round of the championship is in Hamilton, New Zealand, from April 15 to 17. However, the V8s will take part in a non-championship event at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne next weekend.

Race 4 results:

Pos

Entrant

Driver

Vehicle

Fastest Lap

Fastest Lap Time

Race Time

Laps

Points

1

TeamVodafone

Jamie Whincup

Commodore VE2

56

01:23:7463

02:08:50:3685

77

150

2

Jack Daniel’s Racing

Rick Kelly

Commodore VE2

65

01:24:0601

02:08:51:6891

77

138

3

Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon

Mark Winterbottom

Falcon FG

57

01:23:9120

02:08:52:4924

77

129

4

Toll Holden Racing Team

James Courtney

Commodore VE2

62

01:23:8646

02:08:56:4576

77

120

5

Toll Holden Racing Team

Garth Tander

Commodore VE2

55

01:23:9994

02:08:58:6542

77

111

6

The Bottle-O Racing Team

Paul Dumbrell

Falcon FG

61

01:23:8679

02:08:59:4903

77

102

7

Trading Post FPR Falcon

Will Davison

Falcon FG

73

01:23:9642

02:09:00:1902

77

96

8

Jim Beam Racing

Steven Johnson

Falcon FG

69

01:24:3184

02:09:03:5433

77

90

9

Bundaberg Racing

Fabian Coulthard

Commodore VE2

60

01:23:9892

02:09:05:5473

77

84

10

Irwin Racing

Alex Davison

Falcon FG

65

01:24:1281

02:09:06:9681

77

78

11

Mother Energy Racing Team

Jonathon Webb

Falcon FG

59

01:24:1841

02:09:09:9789

77

72

12

TeamVodafone

Craig Lowndes

Commodore VE2

67

01:23:8833

02:09:18:4839

77

69

13

Lucky 7 Racing

Tim Slade

Falcon FG

62

01:24:5516

02:09:20:7673

77

66

14

Stratco Racing

David Reynolds

Commodore VE2

56

01:24:0691

02:09:22:7421

77

63

15

Triple F Racing

Dean Fiore

Falcon FG

60

01:24:6993

02:09:27:0074

77

60

16

Supercheap Auto Racing

Russell Ingall

Commodore VE2

68

01:24:1527

02:09:38:9436

77

57

17

Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing

Karl Reindler

Commodore VE2

56

01:24:4893

02:09:42:2242

77

54

18

SP Tools Racing

Shane van Gisbergen

Falcon FG

61

01:24:5568

02:09:57:1406

77

51

19

Pepsi Max Crew

Greg Murphy

Commodore VE2

65

01:24:4158

02:10:02:2334

77

48

20

Wilson Security Racing

Tony D’Alberto

Falcon FG

56

01:24:5674

02:09:27:6484

76

45

21

Fujitsu Racing GRM

Michael Caruso

Commodore VE2

63

01:24:6494

02:09:47:3581

76

42

22

Jim Beam Racing

James Moffat

Falcon FG

53

01:28:7877

02:09:53:6426

63

39

23

Team BOC

Jason Bright

Commodore VE2

56

01:24:3666

02:09:09:3153

59

36

DNF

Gulf Western Oil Racing

Warren Luff

Commodore VE2

47

01:33:6053

01:23:37:9145

47

0

DNF

Jack Daniel’s Racing

Todd Kelly

Commodore VE2

18

01:32:6870

57:07:8966

33

0

DNF

Fujitsu Racing GRM

Lee Holdsworth

Commodore VE2

20

01:32:4355

44:56:2681

27

0

DNF

Team BOC

Jason Bargwanna

Commodore VE2

1

01:59:5133

01:59:5133

1

0

Whincup ‘Rains’ Supreme At Clipsal 500 was last modified: March 21st, 2011